News
Brantford-Brant

American Walter Rudick, left, and Alexander "Bud" Boots from Dundas St. in Brantford were the two uncles of Paula Loube who met in a secret American-Canadian special forces unit during the Second World War. (Submitted photo)

The elite secretive special forces unit known as the Devil's Brigade was so small and short-lived that it's rare for someone to have had a relative involved in it.

But Paris's Paula Loube is rarer still: two of her uncles - one Canadian and one American -- were in the Second World War assault team due to an unusual Brantford connection.

"It was because of my parents' wedding, which was in 1945," says Loube.

Her mother's brother was Alexander Harold "Bud" Boot from Dundas Street, a soldier who had been recruited to a secretive unit called the First Special Services Force.

When Bud returned to Brantford for the wedding of his sister, Marge Boot, to Frank Ward, he brought his best friend and comrade from the then-disbanded Devil's Brigade, American Walter "Rudy" Rudick.

Rudy fell in love with one of the bridesmaids in the wedding party - Loube's aunt Hazel Ward, the daughter of Charlie Ward, a Brantford politician who remained an alderman until his death at age 91.

"It was just three weeks after I entered the school of nursing," says Hazel Rudick from her Lafayette, La., home.

"He was patient and waited for me until I finished nursing school in 1948. I married him two weeks after I finished training."

But neither Hazel nor Bud's families knew much of the gruelling service the two men had put in.

The unit was made up of about 2,000 Americans and 1,000 Canadians - mostly tough men who had a background in hunting, lumber-jacking or - like Bud - parachuting.

Training was intensive with 4:30 reveille, gruelling marches with ridiculously heavy packs and instruction in demolition, skiing and silent killing.

"The men would blacken their faces, parachute in behind the enemy lines and come at the enemy from behind," says Loube. "The unit was only 'in business' for a little more than a year."

Hazel Rudick says the soldiers operating procedure was to blend in with the night and disable as much as they could of the enemy's infrastructure under cover of darkness."

The impact of the unit is still felt since special forces since - Delta Force, the Green Berets, and Navy SEALS - continue to use much of the training and lessons that were developed by the Devil's Brigade.

This year about 175 surviving members of the unit - including about 60 Canadians - will be awarded U.S. Congressional Gold Medals and, earlier this year, Defence Minister Peter MacKay awarded the Minister's Award for Operational Excellence to vets on Parliament Hill.

Each year a dwindling number of veterans gather for a reunion.

This year, Hazel Rudick and Loube will be among those veterans as they celebrate at the Windsor casino from Sept. 25-28. The reunion also tends to attract interested military people and dignitaries from both Canada and the U.S.

As part of the weekend, there will be a special showing of The Devil's Brigade movie, starring William Holden, although Hazel dismisses the plot as too embellished.

"I'm so pleased thought that they are finally getting the recognition they deserve," Hazel says.

"They lost so many and, my husband, like most of those who were left, felt a little guilty that he survived."

For Loube, it's a chance to celebrate her remarkable uncles and learn more about their wartime heroics.

"I had not just one brave guy in my family, but two."

susan.gamble@sunmedia.ca

@EXPSGamble

Stuff of war legends

The Devil's Brigade, or the 1st Special Service Force, is the stuff of war legends.

The granddaddy of most of today's special forces units, this American-Canadian commando unit incorporated men from a variety of backgrounds and trained in a wide range of skills.

Recruiting ads said preference would be given to forest rangers, hunters and lumberjacks and the men were trained in hand-to-hand combat, skiing, rock-climbing, parachuting and demolitions.

The elite squad was dubbed "The Black Devils" because of a note found in the diary of a dead German soldier referring to the fact the men would blacken their faces during operations.

The unit also practised psychological warfare by using stickers with their unit patch and the slogan, written in German, that said "the worst is yet to come" which they put on German corpses and fortifications.

The Devil's Brigade's biggest triumph was in Italy where, in 1943, the unit used its sheer grit and mountaineering strength to move into the Italian mountains and overcome two heavily fortified German positions.

One of those assaults was used as the story line for The Devil's Brigade, a 1968 movie that starred William Holden.